‘Massive’ changes coming for the North, says CanNor president
Jimi Onalik says to expect funding cuts even with heightened focus on the Arctic
Jimi Onalik, president of the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency, tells Kivalliq Trade Show attendees Wednesday that big federal funding cuts are coming. (Photo courtesy of Kivalliq Trade Show Society)
The federal budget coming in November will contain “massive” changes that people in the North need to be prepared for, says Jimi Onalik.
“I don’t think we should sugarcoat it,” said Onalik, president of the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency, in a speech Wednesday, the final day of the three-day Kivalliq Trade Show in Rankin Inlet.
“There are massive federal cuts coming. There are massive changes in how projects are looked at, how investments are looked at.”
Adjusting to those changes will require a team effort, he said.
Onalik took part in a national security briefing in October 2023, when he started in his position at the northern economic development agency, he told the crowd. At the meeting, Onalik said he learned there hasn’t been this much attention focused on the Arctic since the creation of the Distant Early Warning Line in 1954.
Add to that recent statements by U.S. President Donald Trump about his country taking over Greenland and Canada — plus China’s interest in the North — and there could be profound changes ahead.
“The theme this year is incredibly relevant,” Onalik said, referring to the trade show’s focus on Kivalliq in a changing North.
“It says a lot about the Kivalliq Region that we’re thinking about the future once again, because we’re on the precipice of some change.”
Under Prime Minister Mark Carney’s direction to tighten spending in the upcoming federal budget, government departments have been tasked with cuts not seen since the early days of the Jean Chretien government, he said.
“We’ve been asked in the federal public service to look at finding reductions of 15 per cent,” Onalik said. “Fifteen per cent sometimes doesn’t sound like a lot, but this is a huge reduction.”
With Nunavut’s reliance on federal funding, that’s going to have a big impact.
Onalik said there will also be changes in the way the government spends money. Instead of relying on government-run programs, funding will shift to trying to spur private-sector investment.
Kivalliq will be central to the ongoing conversation around projects of national interest, he added, referencing the Kivalliq Hydro Fibre Link as a large potential development in the region.
Onalik said he expects to hear some news on that in the federal budget when it’s released Nov. 4.
As those changes loom and a heightened Arctic security presence is established, people in the North will be affected and they need to be at the forefront of the conversation.
“It’s going to be a difficult time for the next few years as we look at further reductions in expenditures,” said Onalik.
“So what I love about this forum and this group, you look around the room, it’s going to be all of us working together, to make sure that our current generation of young people have employment opportunities, educational opportunities – and I think there’s a real opportunity here for that.”
Federal Government should scrap CanNor and hand everything over to Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada.
All four GN-NTI major projects don’t cut the mustard. Time to ditch those in favour of drinking water, paved runways and other basic necessities in our communities. Canada can’t afford 3.2 Billion for theKivalliq Hydro project. There’s no private sector to step in because there’s no business case and return on investment. Time to reassess priorities.
This program was half decent but it’s like every federal program, it does not help or develop small business,
There is a delicious, hilarious irony watching Jimmy try to sell the Carney agenda in Nunavut.
The person most responsible for the most snafus in the GN in living memory is now being instructed to tell us it’s time to tighten our belts and innovate our way into prosperity?
Thanks but no thanks Jimmy. We were polite enough to let you take the golden parachute and float off to Ottawa without comment. Don’t make the mistake of thinking we’re going to swallow this tripe about austerity and abundance.
CanNor should start by cutting its executive staff. A president, 2 VPs, a handful of executive directors and a dozen directors for 100 person agency.
Titles are free… I think it would be more imperative to see the salaries of said positions…
If the Federal gov’t were to actually DID a visit in reality of each Municipality’s across the Territory you may perhaps notice run down infrastructures to penny funds from gravel roads, docks, sewage lagoons to landfill sites, airports and NO recycle programs ETC. WHILE mining COMPANIES are taking advantage of ALL the ROYALTY Leisure with DIO’s across this Territory with NO BENEFIT’s of INFRASTRUCTURE’s with Municipalities that lacks services and programs! Yeah, let’s cheer on and keep the kite low!
Let’s crunch some more. It’s Friday fun.
CANNOR became a means that Ottawa could virtue signal that the North was important. They toned down the taint of colonialism by moving EC Dev out of INAC at the time. Build an entirely new bureaucracy to support it (same playbook as Build Canada Homes).
According to federal website CANNOR has approx 124 FTEs; $70M+ budget
Of 17 senior staff disclosed on their ‘Org chart’:
President is listed as based in ‘Iqaluit/Ottawa’.
Based on 16 Director and higher staff (excluding President)
Iqaluit – 3 Senior Staff (HQ + Nunavut Region) – 18%
Yellowknife – 4 Senior Staff (NWT Region) – 25%
Whitehorse – 2 Senior Staff (Yukon Region) – 13 %
Ottawa – 7 Senior Staff (‘Liaison Office’) – 44%
(48% Ottawa based if President is in YOW)
I bet they can find 15% savings somewhere….
All of Nunavut is our land. We should start acting like it. As it stands, many people think our territory only consists of their own tiny community.
Our communities have started at locations suitable for the now defunct Fur Trade. Since then, our communities have only grown by means of continual investment in more government programs and services.
Our communities are mainly located away from known major sources of energy, resources, or where efficient land and sea transportation links and corridors are viable. Where development is possible, we seem to fear the idea of permanent settlement in these places.
It is like if all the potential Edmonton oil support workers stayed living near Jasper and wondered why they are all out of work.
Our communities do not possess real, sustainable economies. The reason for this is that income and corporate taxes remitted from government workers and government contractors are necessarily less than the majority government funding expended within each community.
It is dismaying that so many Nunavummuit seem not to realize this. We have been shielded from this harsh reality from bureaucrats who think this reality does not matter (it does when Ottawa tighten it’s belt), or that they can change this with more government money (they cannot).
Other places in Canada, have recognized the economic reality of small isolated communities even though Nunavut has not. Newfoundland pulled the plug on their Outports decades ago. As painful as closing outports was, I do not think you would see many Newfies saying today it was the wrong thing to do.
Making Nunavut’s communities marginally more comfortable with other people’s money only forestalls the inevitable; eventually our young people realize how much of a dead end their home town is, and leave for greener pastures.
Nunavut needs to create our own new greener pastures, not spend good money after bad.
Maybe you’re new to Canada, so I’ll go with that assumption about you. In the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s after the 2nd world war, Inuit were living a subsistence lifestyle off the land. Canada wanted to have sovereignty in the high arctic, Canada realized there were already people living there, Canada created communities and let’s say they asked them to permanently reside in these communities…even though the people that inhabited these lands followed the migration patterns of animals to live a subsistence lifestyle. There were dog teams that were slaughtered to stop the people from migrating with the animals. There were promises of housing and jobs. Some of these houses they built back then, the match box house, are still being lived in, mind you there is some updated plumbing and heating in them. There’s so much information out on the internet for you to gain some knowledge of Canada and the north and what happened. There has been a trickle down effect and it still lingers today, 2 generations removed from living subsistantly off the land. Hope this little bit of insight allows you to dive deeper into Canadian history on your own. Have a great weekend
“There were dog teams that were slaughtered to stop the people from migrating with the animals.”
This is a myth; disproven by the Qikiqtani Truth Commission.